“I think this also gives us a mandate to do more,” Council member and Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan told The Crimson in March after the no confidence vote.

Kleinman, Ryan, and Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, all of whom spoke about the Faculty’s role in University governance during last spring’s Faculty meetings, were reelected to the Council at the end of last semester.

Baird Professor of Science Gary J. Feldman, who served two terms on the Council but chose not to seek reelection last spring, told The Crimson in May that—though Council members rarely serve multiple terms—the promise of a more involved Council may have encouraged some members to run again.

“I think that the feeling that the Faculty Council may take on more responsibility for Faculty affairs was of interest for people to continue,” Feldman said in May.

Kleinman said that the events of the spring in part inspired the Council’s aim to be “more robust, more aggressive, more active” this year.

But other Council members said that, while recent tensions have contributed to the Council’s increasingly proactive stance, Council members are also concerned with other issues slated to come before the Faculty this year.

“We’re in a period of change,” said Phillips Professor of Early American History Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who is also a Council member. “There are a lot of new agendas.”

Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and Council member Jason A. Kaufman said that this year, faculty will have an opportunity to let their voices be heard on several University-wide issues.

“There are a lot of changes happening in the university, and...if the members of FAS don’t speak up and don’t deliberate, we’ll get less out of the process. Allston planning is obviously a big component of the future here, and FAS is only one player in that. So it’s very important that we’re at the table,” he said.

FIRST STEPS

Perhaps recalling its original mission, Kleinman said that one of the Council’s hopes is for greater transparency in Faculty and University governance and that the Council has already begun to receive more information from Kirby, who chairs the Council, about Faculty affairs.

“I think the dean is being more forthcoming about matters that would have been dealt with largely amongst the deans,” Kleinman said. “Now he’s using the Faculty Council and the Faculty Council is relating to him.”

Small groups of Council members have also met with members of the Harvard Corporation—once in April and again this past Monday—in the hope of establishing channels of contact with the University’s highest governing body.

“The members of the Faculty Council had a very good and open meeting with some members of the Corporation. We are pleased to have established lines of communication with them,” Classics Department Chair Richard F. Thomas, who attended the Monday meeting, told The Crimson earlier this week.

Council members have also taken some steps to achieve their second goal of better representing faculty members.